Need a hand (or two)...

...Juliet, that is; I couldn't quite get her hands finished this weekend, but they'll be done later today:

She has a LOT of hair, which took a good part of last week to stitch; it was definitely worth the time, though. The further along I get with this one, the more I know that she's going to be one of my favorites; I'm already fantasizing about having her framed and hanging on the wall!

Speaking of hair, the latest Mirabilia release was Rapunzel, which is now on its way to me:

I've also just received the latest Lizzie*Kate Halloween design, which is a 3-part mystery called Spooked:

I'm looking forward to stitching this one, especially since L*K didn't release a large Halloween piece last year. Her designs are always a fun stitch, with cute motifs and great colors.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Enter Juliet, center stage

I am so in love with Wherefore Art Thou that I am having a hard time putting it down, especially now that I'm working on Juliet. This past Sunday I finished the second urn, so yesterday I was able to start on Juliet:

I always like having the face done on Nora's designs, as it gives me something beautiful to look at while I continue stitching.

I'm thinking I'll finish part 1 this week, and then I should probably get started on the model that came in last week (even though I don't want to put this one down!!). I'm looking forward to seeing how her dress colors look on this fabric.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

A new start

I finished a model last Friday, and I was planning on getting back to The Moss Collector, but for some reason Nora Corbett's Wherefore Art Thou (WAT) has really been calling to me. I received the chart and threads from Casa Cenina back at the beginning of April, and picked out a fabric for it then, but I wanted to finish The Blossom Collector first. Long story short, I gave into temptation and stared WAT!

This was a 3-part mystery SAL, so there is no chart photo of the whole design. Here is a picture of the piece that Casa Cenina shared on their Facebook page:

When I chose a fabric, I wanted to get a "stone balcony in the moonlight" feeling, so I picked Silkweaver's Swirling Storms on Belfast linen:

When I was stitching this part on Saturday, I had strong flashbacks to my very first Mirabilia, Villa Mirabilia, as it also had an urn with greenery in the top left corner; 20 years later and I can still never get enough of these gorgeous designs!

Here it is as of last night:

Today I'll be stitching roses, and I'm looking forward to seeing them come to life.

I will mention that several people who have stitched (or are currently stitching) this have run out of a number of the threads; apparently the key does not have an accurate number of the skeins needed. This can, of course, cause problems with dye lots not matching at a later time; since I ordered mine from Italy a couple of months ago, it would be pretty unlikely that I'd get good matching skeins if I order more from a US shop now. So, I am once again going through my stash and playing with colors so I don't need to buy more floss. I'm pretty happy with what I've come up with, but won't know for sure until the floss is on the fabric.

Speaking of floss, I received the threads that I ended up ordering from Victoria Motto Sampler Shoppe (though I could still win a set, too!):

The colors are fabulous, and a great price for 20-yard skeins. I'm thinking these would be great for a Halloween Quaker design.

Nancy is having another great giveaway on her blog, this time for some Star-Spangled Banner floss:

I think I could definitely get addicted to her threads!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

ETA: It turns out that the WAT piece shared on Casa Cenina's FB page was stitched by LuLy, and you can see it and other gorgeous pieces on her blog. Thanks so much for letting me know that it was your finish LuLy!

Witches Hollow finally framed

I used the gift certificate that my husband and son gave me for Mother's Day to finally get Witches Hollow framed, a year and a half after I finished stitching it:

I choose a fairly plain black frame with a distressed texture but fairly glossy finish, and I'm very happy with the result.

I also took in Lizzie*Kate's Tingles, which I finished quite a while ago as well:

This one has a smooth, plain black frame, which matches the other two large L*K Halloween pieces I've had framed, Boo Club and Halloween Rules:

I have so many other Halloween pieces that need to be framed so I can add them to my Halloween wall in my craft room:

Another nice part of getting things framed is using the paper that they come wrapped in to make kitty toys; Gracie always appreciates my efforts:

In my last post I mentioned that I had signed up for a Monthly Bits club to start getting Rainbow Gallery's Petite Silk Lame' Braid, and last week I got my first installment:

I can already tell that I'm going to love being in this club!

I will leave you with a picture of the ducks I saw in my back yard a few days ago; who knew that they would like to eat songbird food? Either that or the mom is looking for her baby that I took away; apparently that "ducky" penny is still working!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

ETA: I just came across an awesome giveaway from Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe, who is giving away some absolutely gorgeous threads:

You can find out more on her blog; good luck!